Flower Girl Extraodinaire!

Well, we survived the big day, though Ella is presently tearing through the house yelling with the natural high that comes from a day like today. Ella was a fantastic flower girl! The photographer may have taken more pictures of her than the bride! He gushed to us about how he's never seen a 3 year old flower girl do such a perfect job. "She gets an A+++!" he said. Dave and I joked about how we're going to hire her out to do weddings. A Cinderella hairdo, a princess gown, a whole day of attention, an important job and the opportunity to make lots of new friends-- of course Ella was going to have the best day ever!

This super special bracelet was a gift from Sarah. It has real pearls and crystals and is engraved with Ella's name.

One of many many many glances in the mirror.

Dave did a great job with the ceremony too. It was personal and meaningful and his message even made the bride and groom cry at one point! Dave's favorite part was his best-seat-in-the-house view of Ella coming down the aisle...

I was shaking from silent laughing so hard. Ella was SO purposeful about her job of spreading petals. She would take a step, stop then drop a handful. When she neared the front and still had quite a few in her basket she marched at a snail's pace to get them all out. The pianist actually had to play an extra chorus of Pachabel...twice!...to accompany Ella down the aisle.

She managed to stand through the entire service, though not as statuesque as I would have liked. During the solo, she grabbed a bridesmaids hand and started twirling. She also came very near to flashing everyone by lifting up her dress and did decide to pick her nose and bend down to wipe what she dug out on the carpet.

Above: Ella with Doug and Sarah, the happy couple.

Below: Ella with her new BFF, bridesmaid Lindsey. These two totally bonded!

Ahhh cake. The list was already long, but here's yet another reason to be happy!